I was told, when I was at RAF Church Fenton in the late 80s, that the Mk 4 JPs had all retired early because they were the most heavily used and had run out of hours. I have no idea whether this information is correct but perhaps others more knowledgeable will confirm or deny it.

VX927 is quite correct; the Jaguar aircraft are used as part of a scenario for RAF Cranwell officer cadets during a training exercise towards the latter stages of their 30 week course. “Our” Jaguars, safe in their hangar (usually) at Cranwell are used to train our engineer officers and are fully taxiiable etc.
Regarding the A46 widening, I can recall during my specialist training at RAF Newton in 1986 (I am not a provost officer or a dog!) that the A46 was shortly to be widened and that this would affect some of the families’ quarters nearest the road. Since then many of those houses are now virtually ruins and RAF Newton is no more of course. That part of the A46 is very dangerous (well the road isn’t I suppose, its the people who drive on it who are dangerous) and its been a long time in the dualling, so to speak.

VX927, thanks for posting the pictures even though they are somewhat painful to see – the ops block building was my workplace for over 2 years in the early 1990s when I was on the CFS Ground School staff. It leaked back then whenever it rained and there were problems with spalling concrete but its still a shame to see it go. I remember rehearsals for the Queen Mum’s visit to CFS one year which went well until the day of the event when the weather did its usual and poured it down – the old ops block leaked even more!

Blast TwinOtter23, you beat me to it! Great to see the A400 powerplant being airtested at last. I’m still wondering whether I’ll see the A400 “Belfast Mk II” enter service before I leave – with less than 18 months to go before demob for me I doubt it! 🙁

In an earlier post I said, “I hope that it doesn’t mean that XH588’s flying days are over but I think it will always be a financial struggle to keep it flying.”

I’m still hoping but the struggle is almost over I fear.

“Vulcan ’09 Pledge Campaign

In August 2006, Vulcan To The Sky launched a pledge campaign to save Vulcan XH558.”

Sadly 2006 is another country in a land far away. We have run out of credit, wealthy pursuits are being reined in and, after the diversion of Christmas is over I fear that the reality will be even more stark. What was possible due to the hard work and sheer generosity of so many in 2006 will be most unlikely in the cashed strapped future of 2009. Time to put the beautiful bird in a safe, dry, warm hangar and wait for sunnier days I think.

Camp Bastion Airfield, Helmand, Afghanistan. Originally not a “hard” runway. It was upgraded in 2007. Been there, happy if I do not have to go again!

I shall be joining my colleagues of the local Royal Air Forces Association on Sunday at the Service of Remembrance. In previous years I’ve tended to go to local services on my own or sometimes as part of a formal parade but as I’ve only recently joined RAFA I will now be able to remember fallen comrades (we lost 5 UK troops kia whilst I was on detachment on OP HERRICK in Helmand Province earlier this year) amongst the living, comrades both serving and retired.

“and of course, Councils a Govt LOVE military and old industrial sites, Because they are all classed as “Brown Field sites” its easier for them than to even think of building on Green sites.”Indeed, very true. There is no doubt that the current financial situation will have an adverse effect on development but I guess it will also have a similar effect on the preservation and maintenance of the UK’s aviation heritage. There will be less to spend on aviation restorations, museums etc. As an MOD employee myself I am made aware of the importance of our heritage and, compared to the situation even a few years ago, we are made much more aware of our heritage than ever was the case previously. However, the UK’s finances are in a state and we need more personnel and equipment in the military not more heritage, however much it pains me to write it. As Philip Rhodes point out, it is particularly galling when structures which have a heritage value are in good condition and have been kept in use. A classic case in point being an old railway station on a heritage line I support. It was used as a store for the nearby garden centre whilst another further down the line was converted to a private house, all the others were very quickly demolished although they would have been in quite good condition when closed. Result – requirement to hunt for a replacement building and the subsequent dismantling of another surviving station from Monmouth with plans to move another which had also survived as council offices/stores. I guess we have at least saved one more! We care about heritage and I guess the only thing to do is to convince other people that its worth it too. However, its only going to be worth it for “other people” if a financial inventive is there – that’s life and we can’t deny it – we need to make it worth peoples pockets to save heritage. In some cases, I think we are winning but, in the case of Driffield, perhaps not. I suppose the exam question is, “just why is Driffield so special? There are plenty of other RAF stations around aren’t there?”